SCANNERS

Description:When a rogue Scanner (a member of a race of humans with telekinetic powers)
of unparalleled power played by Michael Ironside wages a bloody war against the
normals, young empath Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack) is recruited to track him
down. But Vale is inexperienced and a battle with another Scanner could mean a
grisly death...or worse. Can Vale vanquish his insanely violent, power-mad
adversary? —
Amazon.com

More
horror than sci-fi really with a new human species of telepaths
with the ability to move objects, read peoples' minds, set things
afire and, most spectacularly, make people's heads explode! In
the film a "good" scanner helps some doctors track down
a "bad" one.

Canadian
director David Cronenberg (who has a thing for vile and weird
body parts - witness movies like The Fly and Naked
Lunch) directs
what is most likely to be remembered for its graphic scenes of
exploding human heads and little else. Definitely not the at
times directionless plot which also involves all kinds of murky
going-ons and corruption in high places. Ultimately it is really
difficult to care about the storyline and/or the characters in Scanners.

Followed
by numerous sequels with which Cronenberg wasn't involved at all:
Scanners II: The New Order (1991), Scanners III: The
Take Over (1992) and Scanners: The Showdown (1994,
also known as Scanner Cop II: Volkin's Revenge for some
reason).